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Did Netanyahu Seek War with Iran?

November 7, 2012

The Israeli news media is reporting that in 2010 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military onto high alert for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program but was blocked by his military and intelligence chiefs. But the question remains how close to war Israel actually got, writes Gareth Porter for Inter Press Service.

By Gareth Porter

A new twist was added to the long-running media theme of a threat by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go to war with Iran when news stories seemed to suggest on Monday that Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli military to prepare for an imminent attack on Iranian nuclear sites in 2010.

Netanyahu backed down after Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Mossad director Meir Dagan opposed the order, according to the reports. But the details of the episode provided in a report by Israel’s Channel 2 investigative news program “Truth,” which aired Monday night, show that the Netanyahu order was not meant to be a prelude to an imminent attack on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The order to put Israeli forces on the highest alert status was rejected by Ashkenazi and Dagan primarily because Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak had not thought through the risk that raising the alert status to the highest level could provoke unintended war with Iran. All the participants, moreover, understood that Israel had no realistic military option for an attack on Iran. . Most stories about the episode failed to highlight the distinction between an order for war and one for the highest state of readiness, thus creating the clear impression that Netanyahu was preparing for war with Iran. The stories had to be read very carefully to discern the real significance of the episode.

The Israeli Ynet News report on the story carried the headline, “Was Israel on verge of war in 2010?” and a teaser asking, “Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak try to drag Israel into a military operation in Iran without cabinet approval?”

AFP reported that Netanyahu and Barak “ordered the army to prepare an attack against Iranian nuclear installations.” The Reuters story said Netanyahu and Barak “ordered Israeli defence chiefs in 2010 to prepare for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities but were rebuffed.”

And AP reported that the order from Netanyahu was for a “high alert for a looming attack on Iran’s nuclear program” and that the episode “indicated that Israel was much closer to carrying out a strike at that time than was previously known.”

Washington Post blogger Max Fisher certainly got the impression from the press coverage that Netanyahu and Barak had “attempted to order the Israeli military to prepare for an imminent strike on Iran but were thwarted by other senior officials.” Fisher concluded that Netanyahu was “more resolved than thought to strike Iran.”

The coverage of the story thus appears to have pumped new life into the idea that Netanyahu is serious about attacking Iran, despite clear evidence in recent weeks that he has climbed down from that posture.

The details of the episode in the original Channel 2 program as reported by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth suggest that none of the participants in the meeting believed that Netanyahu had decided on actual war with Iran. The incident occurred, according to the program, after a meeting of seven top cabinet ministers at an unspecified time in 2010.

As Dagan and Ashkanazi were about to leave the meeting room, the program recalls, Netanyahu ordered them to prepare the military for “the possibility of a strike” against Iran by putting the IDF on the highest level of readiness. Netanyahu used the code word “F Plus” for the alert status, according to the Channel 2 program.

Ashkenazi and Dagan reacted strongly to the order, and Netanyahu and Barak eventually backed down. But both Ashkenazi and Barak appear to agree that the issue was not whether Israel would actually attack Iran but the alert itself. Ashkenazi’s response indicated that he did not interpret it as a sign that Netanyahu intended to carry out an attack on Iran.

“It’s not something you do if you’re not sure you want to follow through with it,” Ashkenazi was quoted as saying. Barak sought to downplay the order for the high alert status, asserting that raising the alert level “did not necessarily mean war.”

“It is not true that creating a situation in which the IDF are on alert for a few hours or a few days to carry out certain operations forces Israel to go through with them,” the defense minister said.

Ashkenazi was not asserting, however, that Netanyahu would be forced to attack. Rather, he feared it would have the unintended consequence of convincing Iran that Israel did intend to attack and thus trigger a war.

The former IDF chief highlighted that danger in commenting, “This accordion produces music when you play with it,” according to “sources close to” Ashkenazi – the formula usually used when an official or ex-official does not wish to be quoted directly.

Barak also said Ashkenazi had responded that the IDF did not have the ability to carry out a strike against Iran. “Eventually, at the moment of truth, the answer that was given was that, in fact, the ability did not exist,” Barak is quoted as saying on the program.

Significantly, Barak made no effort to deny the reality that the Israeli Air Force did not have the capability to carry out a successful attack against Iran. Instead he is blaming Ashkenazi for having failed to prepare Israeli forces for a possible attack.

Ashkenazi angrily denied that obviously political charge. “I prepared the option, the army was ready for a strike but I also said that a strike now would be a strategic mistake,” he is quoted as saying. Israeli military leaders are still saying publicly that the IDF can carry out a strike.

But while Ashkenazi is quoted as saying the army was “ready for a strike”, that is not the same as claiming that Israel had a military option that had any chance of success in derailing Iran’s enrichment program. And in February 2011, he told then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen that references to such a military option were “empty words”, because “Israel has no military option,” according to an earlier report by Yedioth Ahronoth.

Despite the public political feud between them, both Barak and Ashkenazi implied that the purpose of the high alert was to achieve a political effect rather than to prepare for an actual attack.

Both Ashkenazi and former Mossad director Dagan were apparently shocked that Netanyahu and Barak would be so irresponsible as to run the obvious risks of feigning preparations for a war with Iran. Dagan concluded that Netanyahu is unfit for leadership of the country – a point that he had made repeatedly since leaving his Mossad post in 2011.

Netanyahu sought to manipulate the supposed threat of military force against Iran to put pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt harsh sanctions against Iran and even get him to pledge to use force if Iran did not yield on its nuclear program. The firm rebuff to that ploy by Obama last summer brought that phase of the Netanyahu military option ploy to an end, as indicated by his failure to include any implicit threat in his U.N. address in late August.

Netanyahu continues to insist publicly, however, that he is considering the military option against Iran. In an interview for theChannel 2 program, he said, “We are serious, this is not a show. If there is no other way to stop Iran, Israel is ready to act.”

Israeli political observers have suggested that Netanyahu’s belligerent posture has now become primarily a theme of his campaign for reelection as prime minister. But as the coverage of the 2010 episode indicates, the news media have not yet abandoned the story of Netanyahu’s readiness to go to war against Iran.

Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

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17 comments for “Did Netanyahu Seek War with Iran?”

Rehmat

November 7, 2012 at 1:51 pm

YES – both Netanyahu and Ehud Barak still want war with the Islamic Republic – only it’s fought with American soldiers and American taxpayers money.

Israeli prime minister in his satirical speech at the UN General Assembly on September 27, indirectly admitted that he had failed to corner the first Jewish president Barack Obama (who just got re-elected) – to attack Iran before the November 6 election.

“I very much appreciate the President’s position as does everyone in my country. We share the goal of stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program. What I have said today will help ensure that this common goal is achieved. Israel is in discussions with the United States over this issue, and I am confident we can chart a path forward together,” said Netanyahu.

Indirect admitted says it all. Also Obama is not a Jew. Rehmat is full of you know what.

borat

November 7, 2012 at 2:15 pm

rehmatshit is as usual full of delusions. No American soldier has ever fought any of the arab wars of aggression against Israel. America has always aided its most reliable ally in a region of medievalists with supplies, technical support, and both nations have a tremendous program of military and economic cooperation. Kiss a donkey’s ass and eat pork.

TheAZCowBoy

November 10, 2012 at 2:18 pm

If course the billions in weapons and US treasure used to finance Jewish terrorism hasn’t hurt, huh Rehmat? Of course, if the UNITED SNAKES (US/Israel) truly want a ‘nuclear free zone’ in the Middle East – The ball’s in their court.

John

November 7, 2012 at 6:50 pm

Borat, you’re under a delusion with your “Arab wars of Aggression.” Israel in 1948 was never out manned, or out armed by the Arabs. Israel had all the intelligence on every Palestinian village and town on who would and wouldn’t be a problem (knowing who to get rid of). On the 1967 war, Weizman and Rabin both state that prior to the war, the Israeli general staff made it such, that there could be no political solution to the crisis, a scrap between Syria and Israel over Israel’s unilateral diversion of water. Rabin, Eskol and Begin have all said that Egypt didn’t want war, wasn’t ready for war, it had too few forces on the Sinai and those were in a defensive not an offensive position. And can’t you be decent? People like you only make their position worse acting like you do !!

borat

November 7, 2012 at 9:47 pm

you nazi asshole, the arabs struck as soon as the new nation of holocaust survivors was declared a state. When a multination armed force is massed on your border, you strike first before they annihilate you. There is no “decency” for swine like you, rehmatshit, herr hillary, and the other ostrichs who harken the medievalist arab line.

TheAZCowBoy

November 10, 2012 at 2:28 pm

Poor Borat (like the film world’s ‘pendejo’ Borat) he has neither the intelligence or thge sense of humor to deal with the realities on the Muddled East – perhaps even his trek through life has ben uncomfortable as a ZioNazi Jew.

borat

November 12, 2012 at 9:02 pm

Go sit on a cactus you western wacko antisemitic asshole

Hillary

November 7, 2012 at 7:50 pm

Moderator what is this ? Spam Free WordPress rejected your comment because you did not enter the correct password or it was empty ?

The Proxmire Amendment bans military assistance to any government that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities. . The Symington Glenn and Pressler Amendments.

The Symington Glenn and Pressler Amendments prohibit aid to countries that develop or traffic in Nuclear weapons and do not sign up to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has never signed the Treaty.

“If” Israel is found to have Nuclear Weapons any American Patriot may launch an action to have Israel’s $ 5 billion in official aid cut off.

Borat, you are not only wrong in everything you say, you are also a nasty, unpleasant little turd of a person. You give Zionists a bad name, as if a bunch of land-stealing, genocidal war criminals needed any assistance in that area.

borat

November 12, 2012 at 9:03 pm

you’re an antisemitic asshole w/your beloved medievalists in the sand.

Rehmat

November 8, 2012 at 10:02 am

I don’t think Netanyahu would have any difficulty in getting re-appointed head of Zionist regime next year. Most Israeli Jews prefer war-criminals, racists, cunning, liars and sociopaths as their leaders – and Bibi has all those qualifications.

In 2010, Benji Netanyahu’s psychiarist Moshe Yaton committed suicide, leaving a note for Netanyahu: “You sucked the life right out of me. I can’t take anymore”. I am sure Zionazi the sociopath could have survived without a psychiarist all these months.

If the Muslims are medievalist, then Jews are pre-medievalists. They have been claiming to be God’s chosen people for several thousand years. Apparently God chose them for example to us all. No wonder the US has been invading so many nations, killing suspicious families, and ripping off their natural resources.

TheAZCowBoy

November 10, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Well, the jist of the ‘scam’ is that the old Hebrew translators that were translating the Greek Holy Scriptures from the Greek decided to pull a ‘fast one’ on the unsuspecting Goyim by adding that little extra line of ‘code’ that declared the Jews the ‘Chosen.’ But, of course, the ZioNazi/Ashkanazi’s have blown that scam all to hell.

borat

November 12, 2012 at 9:04 pm

the consortinazis need a jackboot in the right place from their beloved iranian mullahs!

Comments are closed.

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